Author profile
Emma Wilkin
Writer and editor
4 min read
#Mechanics & Features
How to Encourage More Snacking and Less Feasting
In early 2021 some clever bods* at a university wrote a research paper about how individual game mechanics affect player attrition (i.e. how many players your game loses over time). It was called ‘Serious Snacking: A Survival Analysis of how Snacking Mechanics Affect Attrition in a Mobile Serious Game’. While that title might make it sound a bit daunting, the paper has some really useful tips on ways to successfully keep people coming back to a game over a long period of time (called ‘snacking’). And luckily, we’ve done the reading so you don’t have to. Why is snacking good? Some games are designed for long single-play sessions (called ‘feasting’). But for most casual and hypercasual games played on mobile devices, short daily interactions with people coming back regularly are going to be most profitable for developers. So the more...
9 min read
#Marketing & Publishing
Words Matter – How to Write Compelling Copy to Sell Your Game
You might think that the most important part of being a game developer is, well, developing games. But you also need to be a writer. I’m not just talking about the words that appear in your game (although obviously those are really important) – you’ll also need to create copy for the app store description, patch updates, user interfaces… the list goes on. And the best publishers also have writing that supports their game. So that’s things like website content, press releases, and promotional material, for example, blogs and newsletters. The short version is that your writing is one of the best selling tools you have in your arsenal – eye-catching, well-written copy could be the difference between people downloading your game, or ignoring it and moving onto the next one. Don’t panic Before you run away shouting ‘But I’m...